“Quite often good things have hurtful consequences. There are instances of men who have been ruined by their money or killed by their courage” Aristotle Actions have consequences. Whatever we do in both...

Another New Year is here! One of the most popular things to do before a new year rushes in is to conjure many new beginnings—or to make a list of...

I am currently taking a special topics course on Citizenship Learning, Participatory Democracy, and Social Change.  Even before starting the course, I knew I would be able to link much...

New participants in an Interactivity Foundation discussion project often wonder how to act when taking part in the discussion. Often when people hear that we’ll be engaged in thoughtful civic...

There are many different kinds of the interactivity going on in IF public discussions. But the interactivity of ideas is one of the most important ones. Our reports are developed...

‘What should we do?’ seems to be a fulcrum of our public discussions today. This is a question that is raised in the streets of Madison and Washington alike. The...

I recently participated in a conference on immigration policy in Washington DC. One of the speakers forestalled criticism by saying that his recommendations were neither new nor original, and that...

IF public discussions provide participants with opportunities to discuss contrasting policy possibilities in neutral, non-partisan settings.  Because these possibilities are meant to be anticipatory of possible policy approaches that allow...

Difference is a fundamental fact of human life. There is similarity too. But difference is the reason why we need to have discussions about public policy. It is also the...